Boyne Readings and Open Mic

The inaugural Boyne Readings and Open Mic event was a great success last night. An audience in the region of thirty five, two excellent featured readers, a great MC and a wide variety of open mic contributors. The venue in the Village Hall in the new Knightsbridge complex was very comfortable and just the right size.

Patrick Dunne read extracts from three of his Ilaun Bowe books including from the first chapter of the forthcoming one which will shortly be published in German. He hopes the English version will be available here soon. Reading extracts from novels is not easy but Pat managed a fine balance between introduction and extracts and read some wonderful dialogue.

Frank Murphy's poems went down very well. His enthusiasm was evident in his bright and chatty introductions and his down to earth-ness and lively wit were appreciated. His Lost Roads of South Meath is the featured poem on the Irish American Magazine website.

There was a great selection in the open mic, rhyming and free form poetry, opinion pieces, an extract from a novel, memories happy and sad.

Pic: Frank Murphy, Paul Egan (Boyne Writers chairman) and Pat Dunne at the reading.

Our next reading and open mic is on 21 May. Featured readers are myself and Paddy Meegan who has recently published a well-regarded book called 'From The Life Around Me' -- a work of prose and poetry which included reflections on modern life, recollections of people he knew, and incidents from his eventful life. And he has plenty of those because he is now aged 87. He played on the Meath All Ireland winning teams of 1949 and 1954.